


Couples Quiz

by Hikarilie



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Couple Quiz, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-08
Packaged: 2019-11-13 00:28:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18021380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hikarilie/pseuds/Hikarilie
Summary: Hannah and Akko take an online couples quiz to see how much one knows about the other.





	Couples Quiz

**Author's Note:**

> Beta read by RaZGriZx86. Thanks so much, dude!

"Come on!"

"No."

"Hannaaaah~"

"Absolutely not."

Akko's adorable pout was the absolute terminator of all grumpy refusals, but it was useless when her girlfriend's nose was buried deep in a textbook, eyes far from the lost puppy visage donned by her brunette partner. Akko's brows furrowed as her habitual plan of action failed, but she wasn't about to throw the towel in just yet. She placed her tablet quietly on the bed sheets, and avoided making any noise as she crept closer to her girlfriend, who was sitting on their apartment's couch. She was the eye of a tornado of books, notes, paper sheets and pens. 

The ginger was in the middle of a gratuitous sip of her strawberry vanilla frappuccino with extra cream.

Her girlfriend would tease her for liking "expensive hipster coffee", but the disgustingly sweet caffeinated concoction was her lifeguard during these trying times of semester finals, when she had an ungodly amount of assignments and projects to turn in and exams to study for. She was scared to death of failing, no matter how much she browsed through her endless and extensive notes and double checked everything. Half the battle was to just keep her heartbeat and her hands calm enough so that she wouldn't lose focus from studying and break down.

It was like descending the stairs to a dungeon, about to face a fearsome dragon of legend that was ready to reduce her puny self to smithereens. And she felt like she had no armor or weapon to fight it back.

Each sip of her Starbucks drink was a brief respite from the hell of pouring over yet another page of her minuscule font textbooks, almost doubling in volume from the sticky notes she'd plastered in every page. It was the only thing keeping her from collapsing mentally.

...Well, that was an injustice. Her adorable idiot of a girlfriend, eternal source of optimism and bright smiles that she was, was very useful in helping the British girl to not snap when her academic pursuits threatened to overwhelm her. And speaking of the klutz - the girl was silent. Too silent for Hannah's liking.

That was explained as a pair of toned arms threw themselves around her chest. Akko rested her head on Hannah's left shoulder, humming to herself. "It's pretty cozy in here, Miss England~"

Hannah's right hand left her textbook, letting the tome collapse on her lap with a dull plop, placing itself with familiarity on the brunette's head. Her fingers immediately traced little paths through the brown locks, paths that they knew like a cartographer would know a land they chartedfor years. Akko could not resist the involuntary goosebumps that ran through her spine and finished their journey through her throat in the form of a long, contented sigh. 

"Comfy, cutie?" 

"How could I not be?" Akko all but purred as the tips of her partner's digits worked their magic. "If only you'd let me do the same for you, Han."

With a sigh, Hannah leaned her head against Akko's, eyes wandering back down to her textbook. "Tomorrow is the final exam for Badcock's class, and you know how awful that blasted _witch_ of a woman's exams are."

"And I also know," Akko moved her head, nuzzling the other girl's, "that you're a pretty good student who's always acing her stuff."

Hannah scoffed. Her record was far above the average, but not perfect. "I'm certainly no Diana, love."

"Yeah, but Diana's like, on her own level."

"Fair."

Akko's head left her perch on Hannah's shoulder, hands wrapping around the girl's arm and tugging with the petulance of a child. "Come ooon. You can allow yourself a break, you've been at this for hours!"

Lifting her acetate glasses (a necessity that arose with her twenties) over the bridge of her nose, Hannah finally inspected her surroundings for the first time since she sat down with her books.

One peek at the living room window showed her the distant shine of a constellation under the veil of a night sky. The last time she'd looked out the window, hours earlier, an early afternoon sun had been casting its rays. She had been at this for longer than she thought. And she couldn't deny that if she kept forcing herself, she'd break down and cry on and ruin her very expensive textbooks. Whether she liked it or not, Akko was correct. Thus she sighed in defeat. "It always baffles me when you're the more logical of the two of us."

"Dear Han, I am a girl," she said, dragging a now willing Hannah along from the couch, the auburn-haired girl's book sliding from her lap, "of many faucets."

"Facets. Unless your sports scholarship ran out and you're planning to get a job as a sink," Hannah quipped harmlessly. Teasing the girl for fun instead of for malice was a far better feeling.

Akko blew a loud raspberry at the other girl, who giggled at her partner's immaturity. Akko sat on the bed, still holding Hannah's arm, nagging her to sit down. Hannah complied. "Shut up and come talk to me when you learn another language."

"Oh, I don't mind being the one on the receiving end of your sweet nothings whispered in Japanese, Koi," Hannah replied smoothly.

A rush of crimson flooded into Akko's face. She lifted a finger to respond, but when she couldn't form any good retorts, she settled on throwing a large pillow on Hannah's face. The Brit burst out laughing from the fluffy onslaught, shoulders shaking as Akko mumbled.

Once she calmed down, Hannah removed her glasses, clasping the temples together before unceremoniously dropping on Akko's lap and turning face-up to look at the brunette with playful hazel irises. "So, what was that about letting you give me affection as well?"

The Japanese refused to meet her girlfriend's gaze, blush still subsiding. "You flustered me. That's not fair."

"All's fair in love and war," Hannah retorted coolly, grasping the hem of her lover's shirt and nuzzling against her body like a cat. One of her hands started to search for Akko's. "You're always doing the same to me, with all those little compliments I don't deserve."

Akko's hand found the one that sought affection, digits entwining easily into place. Her free hand mirrored Hannah's actions from earlier, fixing the auburn strands of hair that had fallen over her partner's eyes before treading up to the top of her head, caressing her locks. "Of course you deserve them, silly. You're great."

Hannah pulled the hand she was holding closer, draping Akko's arm over her body like a blanket. The brunette found it adorable, how needy the Brit could be. 

"I'm not the one who saved our high school's reputation by winning a national championship. I'm just a run-of-the-mill, boring and snarky college student."

Akko didn't say anything, opting to move her hand down to Hannah's cheek, her thumb rubbing circles on the girl's soft and well-cared-for skin. Hannah instinctively leaned into the touch, appreciating the soft warmth of those callous but nonetheless tender touches. This cuddling business definitely put her coffees to shame when it came to relaxing.

"You are a smart and cute little, hm..." Akko jutted her lips out as she procured a word. "Pumpkin."

Hannah snorted loudly. She surely wasn't expecting that word to be used as a compliment. "How fitting. I indeed am an autumn girl."

"I was thinking of your hair when I said that." Akko twirled a lock of hazel hair around a finger.

Hannah mumbled something unintelligible in response, focusing on how the warmth of her special one.

They stayed like that for some time, Hannah possessively taking as much as she could of Akko's body for herself while the Asian expat gracefully ran her hands down the girl's hair, neck and shoulders. Hannah was starting to feel her consciousness drift away under her girlfriend's affection. That's when Akko shifted her body, breaking the very precise, maximum comfort position that the British student had found in her partner's lap. "Come on, sleepy head, it's only like 7PM. Don't you sleep on me yet.

"Not my fault if you're such a good pillow," Hannah retorted hazily, mind still foggy from her quasi-sleep. "But, sure. Did you have anything in mind?" Hannah could afford some more dilly-dallying before going back to her books. Well, not _that_ much, but she felt like indulging her girlfriend.

"Why, indeed I did, squid!" Hannah rolled her eyes at the nonsensical wordplay, while Akko retrieved the tablet she had been using earlier. She unlocked the tablet and flipped through the device's browser until she found what she was looking for. With a wide toothy grin, she more or less shoved the screen on Hannah's face, the girl wincing at the brightness. She took the tablet from Akko's hands, shifting herself to a sitting position while she squinted her nearsighted eyes to figure out the pixelated words on the liquid crystal display. "'20 Questions All Couples In A Strong Relationship Should Be Able To Answer'...?" Hannah sighed. "You want to do a BuzzFeed couples quiz? And then you say _I'm_ the basic bitch."

"Oh, come on, it'll be fun! Weren't you all over those quizzes in teen magazines when we were in high school?"

The British girl grimaced as she remembered the worst of her preppie girl days, squealing with Barbara as they read 'How To Get Your Dream Boy in 10 Steps' articles from magazines they religiously purchased every week. ' _See how that boys crazy thing panned out'_ , Hannah mocked internally. Life had taken a far from expected turn when she fell for a jockey, of all people, and a girl at that.

Now _that_ had been a fun Christmas with her conservative family. 

She puffed her bangs away from her eyes and drew a sigh. "Alright, no harm in it. How does this one work?"

Akko placed her head beside Hannah's, all but smashing their cheeks together. The girl had as much regard for personal space as when they met: none at all. But where it once bothered her to no end to see the girl absolutely fail to reign in her touchy-feeliness, introducing herself without invitation into her privacy, now Hannah wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

The brunette placed a finger on the screen, scrolling down and showing a list of options. "You answer all these questions about yourself, what you like, all that stuff." She scrolled further, showing a second, identical list to the first. "And then I try to guess what your answers were here. Then we'll see how much I know 'bout ya cute little self." Hannah couldn't really see it from the corner of her eye, but she definitely felt the muscles on her girlfriend's face pulling up in a cheeky smile. 

Hannah opened some distance between the two and found her glasses, so that she could peer at the first question. She scoffed. "Oh, please. We don't need a stupid online test to affirm our relationship and interest in each other, Akko." She said that, but her own words triggered a pang of doubt on her chest. Not that she doubted Akko's love for her, but she knew she wasn't exactly the most interesting person out there, unlike her partner, who was so full of quirks, ambitions and talents. 

Sometimes she honest to Nines wondered what the girl saw in her. 

Her doubts quieted down for the moment when a pair of lips pressed themselves on her cheeks. "Of course not, it's just for fun," she was reassured.

Touching the warm spot, Hannah smiled bashfully. "S-sure. Give me a few minutes then. No peeking," she teased her girlfriend, placing a kiss on her nose.

Akko covered her eyes with her hands, smiling like a dork. "This good, ma'am?"

"I'll be facing away from you anyway." Hannah placed a pillow over the headboard and sat against it, bringing her legs close to her body and placing the tablet on her lap. Her eyes flitted to the headline of the article. 

_So you're in a relationship and you're pretty happy, right? Well, it's time to put you both to the test and see if you really know each other._

Hah. So this test wanted to... for lack of a better word, _test_ them. So be it, no flimsy online quiz could defeat their relationship. 

First question. _What is your favourite basic colour?_ That one was easy. One simply had to see the yellow ribbon she used during high school to tie her ponytail up to figure that out. Though she didn't have as much use for it nowadays - since she let her now shoulder-length hair loose -, it was still neatly folded inside a drawer. It was her lucky ribbon. After all, she was wearing it when she started dating the cutest girl she'd ever laid eyes on, and whose beautiful rubies sometimes made her feel like changing this question's answer to red.

Speak of the devil. Akko nestled herself on Hannah's legs, perusing her phone while she waited for her turn to take the quiz. It was a comfortable silence.  
  
Next up was her star sign. Taurus - accurate, at least when it came to being bullheaded and stubborn. Not like she believed much in astrology, she didn't have time for such frivolities.

 _What do you think is your best physical feature?_ Her eyes, little doubt there. Hannah didn't think highly of her body, but her expressive hazel eyes were remarkably beautiful and she loved it when people complimented their color.

 _What is your best personality trait?_ She supposed most people would answer "kindness" or something just as basic, but for her, it was her spontaneity. Her ability to be honest and not hold back her thoughts made her a better friend... after she learned to temper her tongue and not be a jerk, anyway. It was how she'd strode nonchalantly through the incomprehensible web of feelings that Barbara, her best friend, and one of Akko's besties, Lotte, were in, shoving the girls together inside a room to actually _talk_. They'd come out of it a happy, book-loving and nerd couple, and Hannah was more than pleased with herself that day. 

 _What would you be famous for?_ Looking over the possible answers, Hannah sighed and picked 'for being a socialite', though that was based on how she used to think. She could never see herself reaching stardom for her own talents, but she still used to wish for fame. Her teenage self wanted to marry rich and be the wife of a handsome man with deep pockets. Alas, she was now a twenty-something living in a modest apartment with Akko, her greatest ambitions being finishing her degree and finding a part-time job she could juggle with her education. And honestly? She didn't mind. Akko's ramen was out of this world. She scrolled down to the sixth question.

And then she yelped loudly, almost throwing the tablet across the room, startling Akko.

"Babe? You okay?!" Akko asked with deep and loving concern, gazing up at her girlfriend, whose face was on fire. The moniker of 'babe' certainly didn't help her heartbeat to slow down.

"I-I'm fine, this stupid quiz just caught me by surprise is all," Hannah comforted the athlete, easing her back into the position they had been sharing.

"Huh. If ya say so, love," Akko shrugged with a quaint smile, turning her attention back to a video of a cat doing something cute. Hannah took a breath and faced her new, HTML-formatted arch-nemesis.

_What is your favourite sex position?_

How in bloody blazes was she supposed to know that?! Hannah and Akko had yet to move to the next base, and thinking about it now made her wonder why they hadn't. ' _W-well, we are respecting each other's time, you dolt of a test. Stop judging me for taking it slow with the hanky-panky._ ' She glared daggers at the device, and it had no response. In her mind, though, it was cackling diabolically.

There were many alternatives to choose from. Hell, she had no idea what most if any of those even looked like - what in heavens is a reverse cowgirl? But she felt that she'd be letting the quiz win if she flunked out of answering, so she looked the positions up.

Then regretted it immediately. If her face had been on fire before, now it was positively a Californian forest during the summer, and she was glad that Akko was distracted or she'd probably have tried to take Hannah to see a doctor. She forced herself to face upwards, because looking at Akko now, with those lewd positions burned into her mind felt wrong, like she was corrupting something pure and precious.

' _M-missionary looks kinda hot, though._ ' She slammed the option and went to the next question, immediately purging her mind of thinking further about the topic. 

 _How do you sleep at night?_ Thank Lord, a decent, family-friendly question. What was that sudden shift in tone all about? She slept on her side, any other positions gave her headaches. (Plus, she got to look at her gorgeous girlfriend, her chest rising and falling slowly in peaceful slumber, until she fell asleep herself.)

 _What is your ideal age to get married?_ Had she ever considered tying the knot with Akko? Probably not in any serious manner. Hannah preferred to enjoy their relationship in the present, even when her anxiety tried to force her into pessimistic outlooks or futures she couldn't predict. But if she _had_ to choose, it would be between 25 and 30, after both had finished their degrees, found a stable job and could invest in a place of their own. No use jumping the gun there. And Hannah wanted to get a few more years of calling the brunette her girlfriend before she could call her wife. Well, assuming it ever came to that, they were only half a year in. But the thought warmed Hannah's chest, of a married, domestic life.

Plus, she got a kick out of imagining what her family's faces would look like when she sent them invitations to her lesbian wedding. 

 _Who said "I love you" first?_ Hannah did. They'd known each other since high school, having gotten over their altercations after the end of year one. After graduation, they would meet up several times a week when their schedules allowed, since both ended up going to college in London. They'd meet on a quaint little café called Last Wednesday Society, watch volleyball matches together, or simply hang out at each other's place to watch anime or play video-games that Hannah was an absolute disaster at. And as they did that, their fondness grew.

They had been dancing around the tension for weeks when Barbara, as retribution for Hannah helping her get her act together, made her bestie sit in a chair and had an hour long talk about how she should just confess to the jock already. It hurt the raven-haired witch to see Hannah revert back to the worst of her anxiety because of all the feelings she was repressing. And so Hannah did, she went up to the girl with a heart-sshaped box of assorted chocolates - a remarkably clichéd choice, she could thank her hopeless romance novel enthusiast of a best friend for that - and poured her feelings into a confession, so she could finally stop feeling anxious about where they stood and so she would stop herself from pushing the girl who had brought light and joy into her life like nobody else away out of fear.

To her elation, the (very bashful and teary-eyed) answer was positive. It was a treasured memory that would never fail to make her feel mushy inside.

 _What's your favourite type of holiday?_ She was torn between 'a spa retreat' and 'anything with sun and a pool'. But she went for the latter, because the former was something she could only enjoy with Barbara and Diana. With the latter, she could easily picture the entire gang having an amazing fun-filled day at the pool or the beach. Seeing Akko's toned body in a bikini wouldn't hurt either...

 _What is your favourite type of chocolate?_ Dark chocolate, if only because she found it more refined. Her girlfriend had the sweeter tooth of the duo, and had tried dark chocolate once and only once. The disillusioned Asian spent half an hour crying out "how the hell can you like this bitter stuff?!" at Hannah between many, many sips of water to try and get the taste out of her mouth, while Hannah failed miserably to not roll on the floor laughing. 

(It was at this point Hannah realized the quiz used the British spelling for 'favourite', and she commended the writer mentally for that.)

 _If you could redo the first date, what would you want to do?_ She didn't really have any issues with their first date. It had been a trip to the movies, which Akko got to pick - some superhero action comedy flick that Hannah didn't quite care for, but they held hands for the first time over the course of the movie and that had been more than enough. It was followed by dinner at a restaurant of Hannah's choice, and even though Akko stuck out like a sore thumb with her ripped jeans and band T-shirt inside the high-class restaurant, at least they found a shared love of seafood that would eventually lead the Brit to discover a love for sushi.

If there was really anything to fault, she regretted not kissing Akko before they parted ways, otherwise it would've been perfect. The chance was there, as they left the restaurant, sharing hands under the cool evening sky, but the England had been too nervous to make the move. The moment passed when the Japanese's cab showed up to take her home. So she chose 'something cute and romantic' for lack of a better answer.

 _What is your favourite season?_ Autumn. She appreciated neither glaring sunlight nor torrential snow, but nothing would ever take away from her the soul cleansing serenity of London's parks when the leaves started to fall and the world was coated in all her favorite warm shades. As a child, Hannah was actually excited to rake the leaves from their yard so she could jump into them. It was something she missed now, living in an apartment with few trees adorning the concrete sidewalks.

 _What Harry Potter house would you be sorted into?_ Slytherin. She didn't really know what that meant, as she had never actually watched or read anything from the franchise, but she remembered the answer from when she relented to a Potterhead-phase Barbara and took the sorting hat quiz on Pottermore.

 _What do you think your partner's favourite part of you is?_ Hannah had no idea, because if you asked the adoring jock, every part of her was somehow the best one at once. Honestly, how could she ever have deserved this girl's flattery? Especially with how much she lacked in the curves department. She decided to eenie-meenie-moe it and chose 'my body'.

 _How many biological cousins do you have?_ She could give all of those other inane questions a pass, since they spoke of her interests or their relationship. But how in the world did _that_ speak of their relationship?! Even Hannah didn't know exactly how many cousins she had, what with how much her family branched off with all the daughters being married off to other families for interest. Blasted superficial aristocrats and their self-absorbed cockamamie. It had no place in this century, and Hannah was more than happy to break that chain by moving away and taking Graphic Design, a course _she_ wanted, instead of what they'd chosen for her from birth, and being top of her class while doing it. 'More than I can count / I don't know'.

 _What is your favourite hot drink?_ Coffee, her bittersweet lover with whom she had a scalding affair during her darkest, studiest nights. She would never quite get her nation's love for tea when these amazing roasted beans existed.

 _What would you do if you found money on the floor?_ 'Put it in my pocket and spend it later'. Hannah was a semi-broke college student after all, so you couldn't exactly blame her for not giving to a charity or homeless person. Though Hannah wouldn't ever deny someone who asked her for some spare change while on the street. It was the least she could do as a privileged person on a broken system.

 _Which of these common fears are you most scared of?_  Many of the options spoke out to her, but the one that took the cake was 'crowded places'. Hannah had an anxiety disorder that was magnified when she had to deal with too many people at once. She was still working through the damage of the many years of regal events she'd partake with her family, where she was forced to mingle and interact with hoity-toity dullards, all the while pretending to be a social butterfly when, in reality, she was boiling in her own skin, overwhelmed by the contact. The memory brought a bitter taste to her mouth. She was glad that now, as an adult, she could choose to hang out with just her close group of friends. But even then, crowded subways or malls were still a challenge for her.

She took a long breath. She'd finally reached the final question.

 _Do you believe in God?_ Her eyebrows quirked. She wasn't expecting that to be the final question of a romance quiz, but she supposed that religion was a factor in the life of a couple. Her family was majorly Protestant, for one, going back several generations. Hannah knew her girlfriend was a Shintoist, which she didn't quite understand but absolutely did not have any issues with. But the girl herself chose to not dwell on it in her day to day life, it was simply not a topic that she felt demanded her attention. 'I believe there's something, but I'm not sure if it's actually God'. That was the closest option to 'don't know, don't care'.

As she chose her last answer, the page gave her a score of 67 and a prompt to 'get your partner to take the second part of the test'. The closer their scores were, the more they knew each other, apparently. 

Akko had just finished laughing at a Twitter post when Hannah placed the tablet in front of her. "Your turn, Romeo. Woo me with your knowledge of, well... me."

The right corner of Akko's mouth shot up in a confident smirk. "I'm gonna blast you away with my expertise, England, and then you're gonna shower me in kisses as a reward," she responded cockily.

"Why, aren't we confident tonight." Hannah placed her hands on her girlfriend's cheeks and placed a kiss on her forehead, earning a chuckle. "Answer the quiz, and we'll see whether I can comply."

With that, Hannah stood up from the bed, leaving her girlfriend to take the quiz where she couldn't peep. She went to the kitchen and served herself a cup of coffee. She could see the girl mulling over her answers, eyebrows shooting up with an excited 'Aha!' every time she found a good answer. It was an adorable sight to watch... but not enough to quell the little monster doubt that dug its way into her mind again.

Though she hadn't intended to, Hannah ended up pouring a lot of her heart when choosing answers, and it allowed her insecurities to seep in. Maybe she wasn't interesting enough. Maybe Akko just dated her out of a pity. Maybe it was a really elaborate prank to get back on her from when she'd bullied the girl during high school. She gripped the kitchen counter harder as each thought compounded the previous one.

Hannah was about to hyperventilate when Akko's voice piped in from the other room. "All done, m'lady!"

She broke herself out of her reverie just enough, and took a deep breath, trying to calm her tremulous hands as she made her way back. She loved coffee, but bloody hell, did it ever backfire on her if she drank it right around the time anxiety kicked in.

"So," Akko started. Hannah lied on the bed, hoping that having a pillow under her head would soothe her jittery mind. She was being dumb. A stupid online test shouldn't hold any weight on their relationship to her. And even if it did, she had no doubt that their scores would be close.

"It says here that my score is..."

Akko paused, waiting for her imaginary drumroll to finish.

"15!"

" _What_?!" Like a lightning bolt, Hannah shot up from her pillow in cold sweat and clutched the device from Akko's hands in disbelief. It took a couple moments for her hands and eyesight to stabilize enough to see the result.

It read 70.

"Han-Han?"

She felt like something lower than dirt - like filthy sludge maybe -, right then and there for doubting her girlfriend. Her hands, weak and trembling, let the tablet drop to the mattress. She grabbed the sides of Akko's shirt and buried her face in the girl's chest, not a moment too late as a fit of ugly sobs rose from her throat. She was such an idiot. Such a petty, dumb, stupid jerk.

"Hannah! I-I'm sorry, I was just trying to do a joke, did I say something wrong?" Akko wrapped her arms around the girl, a hand moving to rub circles on her back. Hannah's body hitched with each strangled hiccup.

"N-no, it's me, Koi." Still hiding her face, she wiped some of her tears away with the back of her hand, chin quivering as she bawled. "I-I was afraid you didn't really know me and t-that it meant you might not like me and I'm... I'm just an enormous jackass who doesn't deserve someone as amazing as you at all..." 

"Shh." Akko hands moved up, clasping together behind the auburn-haired girl's neck, pulling her close. Her hands moved to Hannah's cheeks, warm from blood rushing to her face. Gently, without force, the brunette guided Hannah's face towards her. The athlete's heart bled at the sight of her beautiful partner blubbering and stammering between thick tears and loud sniffs. The girl, when she wasn't rubbing her eyes far too hard trying to stop the streams and pretend she wasn't crying her heart out, looked anywhere but at her partner, full of shame and embarrassment.

She moved in and took Hannah's lips with hers. It was far from an idyllic kiss, but it sent a simple, clear but effective message she thought to act rather than say out loud. Those three little but meaningful words.

Hannah, however, couldn't accept the idea, not when crushed by self doubt. "I-I don't deserve your love. Not when I'm still so scared about us."

"Hey, love isn't about deserving anything, dork. You're not a checklist." The Japanese placed her lips on the corners of each of the girl's eyes, as though to kiss the tears away. Her arms wrapped around the girl's waist, and Akko's body begun to lie down on the bed, pulling Hannah along. They lied side by side, facing each other. "You're just you, Han-Han, and who I fell in love with."

"But _why_?" Hannah finally gathered the courage to meet Akko's gaze, defiance in her irises born from her self-deprecation. "I-I'm just a spoiled and insecure brat who's crying over an online test. I have no idea what you see in me."

Akko didn't flinch from her girlfriend's questioning and accusing tone, even if it stung a bit. Her hand found its way to the Brit's jaw, tracing its length. "Do you remember all those years ago, when we joined Luna Nova and I was just a kid with dreams?"

"Of course I do," Hannah sniffed.

The brunette was serious as she spoke. "I was just that. Another kid with dreams. If you looked now, you could say there was a clear path leading to where I am today, famous for my sports awards and known by a lot of people, admired. But it was definitely not that promising at first. And in those days, you were there, always talking about how I would never get there. How I was just another girl from a backwater town with dreams too large for a world with small opportunities."

Hannah cast her eyes down to her hands that were fidgeting with each other. It hurt to remember how cruel her words had been.

Akko took her hands in hers and smiled.

"And I never thanked you for that."

The British girl cocked her head, befuddlement the defining word of how she felt. "Why the bloody hell would you _thank_ me for bullying you?"

The brunette wasn't quite looking at Hannah, her eyes looking away nostalgically, as though gazing into the past. "I faltered many times. Dreams weren't enough if I couldn't believe in myself, and sometimes, I simply didn't. Might surprise you, but even my confidence isn't infinite, heh. My friends supported me so much, but you, Hannah - _you_ drove me to want to try and prove you wrong. In a roundabout way, you encouraged me back then. I don't think you were a total bully, more like you expressed yourself through 'tough love'."

That was true. Hannah would _never_ abide by the idea that expressing affection through harassing others was healthy. But when Akko arrived at their high school, a peppy immigrant with ambitions of astronomical size, Hannah had felt so many things at once. An admiration, that she couldn't even think about and deny to herself because she couldn't process it was that, born as she was in a nest of unloving hornets. She felt jealousy, because she knew that if she had a tenth of the girl's gumption, she wouldn't be stuck in a life that she didn't like. And most of all, she was angry for having to feel so much towards someone. She remembered her conflicted nights, where, mere hours after she'd belittled the girl for training so hard when she 'didn't have a chance', she'd sneak into the school's court with a large, shadowy bonnet to watch her games, secretly rooting for her team to win and hollering with each consecutive victory. What she really wanted to do was to make the girl be her best self.

If only she'd been able to phase those feelings without looking like a total bitch.

"You are a proactive as heck person, Hannah. You're always giving people the blunt but necessary advice that others can't. And you actually confessed to me. I still can't believe you were the first one of us to do that!" Akko giggled. It really was a surprise, given how the brunette was usually more in touch with her own emotions than others.

Hannah only listened as Akko went on. Her tears were finally slowing down, and her anxiety was floating away as she felt her girlfriend's warmth, physical and emotional, replace it. 

"You are intelligent, just look at how you're always devouring books and articles! Not to speak of how good your grades are. You might want to deny it and say it's nothing, but you _did_ get a very large grant for college on your own merits when your dumb parents weren't willing to pay for you. Oh, and on that! You are really brave for flipping them the bird like that. Hmm, what else? Your eyes are pretty, you have the cutest little button nose, your hair is soft, your freckles are like little constellations on your face..." Akko moved her hands to caress Hannah's face with each compliment. "You also look _really_ hot with those glasses, like a librarian."

"A-Akko!" Hannah playfully punched the girl's chest, unable to stop herself from smiling sheepishly at the compliment.

"It's true, though! And more important than anything, Hannah," and here Akko narrowed the gap between their faces, touching their noses in an eskimo kiss, "you were mature. You saw your own flaws and you worked hard to become a better person. You still do, everyday, even if you try to hide from me how you struggle with holding your meanieness back. I needed help from, like, a dozen people to get over my impatience and immaturity, but you did most of it alone. And I find that very, very admirable and the mark of an amazing person. I believe in your believing heart, Hannah, and I always will."

Hannah breathed in deeply. It was hard to know how to handle such a deeply emotional and sincere declaration of love. She was floored. "Koi, I... I don't know what to say. I didn't know that's how you felt about me."

"You may doubt it sometimes, Han-Han. And I'm not angry that you were insecure. But I really, reeeeeally needed to remind your stupid butt that, yes, even with all the little flaws, even with what happened and is behind us..." Akko closed the remaining space for one more kiss. This time, with Hannah having calmed down from her outburst, they were able to lean into the moment, sharing a passionate kiss full of a love and admiration only a couple that really knows each other can claim to have. Akko was the first to pull for breath and to finish her train of thought. "Yes, I love you, Han."

"I love you too, Koi." And Hannah said that with a profound sincerity. Moments like these tempered her already strong love for the brunette so much more. To have such an amorous piece of sunlight in her life, after so much incomprehension, after all of her shortcomings that she had to fight through, was something she'd always be grateful for.

They smiled at each other, with a deep fondness they reserved only for the most special person in their lives, shifting as they entwined their legs and arms, cuddling each other and not wanting to let go from the other's love. In that moment, Hannah wished she could just blast college and Ms. Badcock's exam to hell and spend eternity inside that embrace, within the arms of the one who she loved and trusted so much. 

Akko finally broke the silence.

"Sooo... do I get those kisses now?"

"Hmm. First, I wanna know what your answers were~" Hannah sing-sang.

"You party pooper."

They spent the next hour discussing answers and how the quiz would've been done if they switched places. Akko's color was red, she preferred milk chocolate and her drink of choice was hot chocolate; her ideal vacation would be sightseeing in the city, she was a Gryffindor and she was torn between Hannah's smile and her butt for what she liked more, which boosted the Brit's self-esteem a bit.

Both blushed furiously when the topic of their preferred sex position came up, and both were equally confused as to why there was a question for how many cousins their partner had, of all things, but not one for their favo(u)rite movie genres. That turned out to be action for Akko and romance for Hannah, and both agreed on looking up action-romance movies they could watch together to celebrate once the auburn-haired girl finished the last of her semester finals the day following.

And yes, Akko did get those kisses in double.

Like clockwork, Akko was the first to fall asleep. One couldn't blame her, given how much she'd train and work out on any given day. As for Hannah, the student had become used to an owlish routine, staying up late to finish assignments or, as was the case, to study. She draped the blankets over her snoring girlfriend and kissed her forehead. "I'll join you soon, Koi."

Hannah sat down with her books once more, glasses perched on her nose as she approached the dragon that was her studying.

But now, it barely looked greater than a lizard, and she felt empowered by the love of her Akko.

She resumed her studies with a confidence she couldn't remember feeling before today, certain that she could ace that test if she worked hard. After all, if her girlfriend loved her that much, then Hannah didn't have to be afraid. She could put her mind to anything she wanted, and she would be her absolute best.

Because Akko believed in her believing heart, and the feeling was mutual.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope y'all enjoyed. It was going to be a simple drabble, but so it was that it ended up becoming a really long oneshot. Consider leaving some comments~
> 
> This is the quiz I used for the fic: https://www.buzzfeed.com/benhenry/do-you-know-your-partner-better-than-they-know-you


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